


Wolność

by orphan_account



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Historical, M/M, World War II
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-23
Updated: 2014-11-23
Packaged: 2018-02-26 19:21:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2663393
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AU. Warszawa, September 1944. The uprising is ending and freedom is intangible.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Wolność

**Author's Note:**

> This story takes place during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. It's something I really wanted to write for some reason so here it is.

A flag, torn and tatty around the edges, moves limply in the late-evening, September breeze above Wojciech's head. Red and white adorns it, split down the middle, a defiant spark of colour on the dusty, decimated street. The only other presence of colour comes from the bottom of the road, where orange candle flames flicker out and flowers die on an unmarked grave, their once green stems succumbing to the grey.

Wojciech tilts his head back down, figuring the Nazi soldiers must have missed it. Usually they take them down, burn them. They burn everything; hospitals, houses, churches...Wojciech cringes at the memory, holding Robert back, trying to get him to shut up as the tanks rolled away. He thinks that, perhaps if they hadn't found Robert's reaction so humorous, they would've executed him on the street, then and there. _I won't watch your execution_ , Wojciech had said. _They wouldn't have given you a choice_ , he remembers Robert snapping back, the cold, hard truth of it sending an uneasy shiver down his spine.

Looking back over his shoulder, Wojciech catches Robert's eye. His eyes are dead on his sullen, thin face. He walks over to Wojciech, tripping on the rubble underfoot, not watching where he's putting his feet. At one point, even before the uprising, Wojciech had asked Robert if his eyes were fine. They were, but oh how much he'd rather be blind. Blind and deaf and dead. (Don't say that, Robert. Don't say things like that. _Wiesz ile dla mnie znaczysz. Potrzebuję Cię tu. Proszę, potrzebuję Cię. Proszę.)_

"Maybe it's a sign," Wojciech says, gesturing up to the flag.

"A sign of what?" Robert asks, tilting his chin up, squinting slightly as the wind blew dust in his eyes. An air raid had left the street full of the skeletons of what once were homes, and Wojciech thinks he can still taste the ash in the air, feel the sting of the flaking debris in his eyes.

" _Wolność_."

Freedom. Robert, starving and exhausted, laughs, awakening a dormant pain in his ribs. He grabs his side, face twisting. For a moment, he can't breathe. He gasps, reaches out for support in the shape of a fistful of Wojciech's jacket. The younger man steadies him, grabbing him by the elbows as he wheezes.

"You're alright," Wojciech says, low and uncertain. "We're alright. Come on, sit down." He ushers Robert to a wall, blessedly still standing, and they both sit, backs against the wall, under the Polish flag, side by side. Subconsciously, Robert takes his hand, tips his head back and stares at the darkening sky above them.

(They are found, sleeping, by a group of soldiers and told to put their hands in the air. They are taken away, separated. _Obiecuję ci że, gdziekolwiek byś nie był, znajdę cię i będziemy razem_ , Robert shouts because not one of the soldiers in their war-worn uniforms around him understand what he is saying. Wojciech holds Robert's promise close to his heart for the five months he stays in Gross-Rosen, until the Soviets come (now you come, he thinks bitterly) and liberate all those inside. _Wolność_.

They do not free Robert; Robert frees himself in sickness, blood dripping from his mouth on this never-ending march to God only knows where. Sachsenhausen is somewhere in the distance behind him, and with that he dies happy and peacefully at the side of a forest, wondering if Heaven is like his dear old Warszawa used to be.)

**Author's Note:**

> Translation notes: 
> 
> _Wiesz ile dla mnie znaczysz. Potrzebuję Cię tu. Proszę, potrzebuję Cię. Proszę._ \- You know how much you mean to me. I need you here. Please, I need you. Please.  
>  _Wolność._ \- Freedom  
>  _Obiecuję ci że, gdziekolwiek byś nie był, znajdę cię i będziemy razem._ \- I promise you that, wherever you may be, I will find you, and we will be together. 
> 
> I apologise if these aren't 100% accurate, my Polish isn't the best. (I am such a disappoint to my parents xD)


End file.
